Prosecutors drop bid to keep Seattle serial rapist locked up

Published 8:58 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013

A Seattle serial rapist will likely be free for the first time in 16 years early next week, when prosecutors expect to drop an effort to have him institutionalized indefinitely as a violent sexual predator.

Sentenced to prison in 1997 for a string of sexual assaults, Sallyea McClinton, now 35, would have been released a year ago had King County prosecutors not filed a lawsuit meant to keep him confined until state psychologists determined he was fit for release. A change in opinion by a state psychologist who previously found McClinton eligible for institutionalization forced prosecutors to ask that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Under Washington law, county prosecutors or the state Attorney General’s Office can file civil lawsuits asking that convicted sex offenders be confined indefinitely at a Department of Social and Health Services facility, the Special Commitment Center.

To prevail, prosecutors must show that an offender is likely to sexually assault again, and that the offender has a mental abnormality making him so. If a jury or judge agrees with prosecutors, an offender can be sent to the McNeil Island facility.

The Special Commitment Center is home to about 300 men being held indefinitely. While several offenders have "graduated" from the program and more than a dozen others are living off the island, most remain at the facility. They make up about 1 percent of the sex offenders convicted in Washington courts.

Prior to prosecutors attempting to have McClinton confined at the Special Commitment Center, a state psychologist found McClinton was likely to offend again. Late last month, the psychologist reviewed her work and agreed with a defense expert that McClinton does not qualify for civil commitment.

That change in opinion left prosecutors unable to continue the lawsuit, King County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Dan Donohoe said Tuesday. Prosecutors have asked that the case be dismissed, and a King County Superior Court judge is expected to grant that request during a hearing Monday.

McClinton was suspected of raping or assaulting least six women in the weeks surrounding his 18th birthday in the fall of 1995.

“All totaled, over six weeks Mr. McClinton engaged in serial rapes or attempted sexual assaults with four females,” a psychologist said in a report filed by prosecutors. The psychologist went on to assert McClinton attempted to sexually assault a fifth woman during the same spree.

According to court papers, McClinton attacked a 34-year-old woman after following her home from a Rainier Avenue bus stop. McClinton raped her at knifepoint in an apartment complex elevator.

McClinton later forced his way into the apartment a 33-year-old woman shared with her two children. Once inside, he attempted to rape the woman but was thwarted after the woman’s 13-year-old broke a window to summon help. McClinton returned to the apartment the following day, but was scared off by another of the woman’s children.

A jury acquitted McClinton in another attack at a Seattle apartment. Reports indicate McClinton was suspected in at least three other cases. Charges were not pursued in those cases.

Writing the court, a clinical psychologist who interviewed McClinton noted the Seattle native was first suspected of sexual assault at age 15. After that, he spent much of his youth in foster homes or was homeless until his arrest in the string of sex assaults.

Since being convicted of rape, attempted rape and burglary in 1997, McClinton was faulted on multiple occasions for harassing corrections officers and other women working at state prisons where he was serving time. He also exposed himself to or masturbated in front of prison workers 10 times. All told, he received 120 disciplinary infractions during his years in the prison system.

McClinton did not participate in sex offender treatment while in prison. Asked what he planned to do if released, he said, according to the psychologist’s report, he would simply choose not to attack anyone.

Presently confined at the Special Commitment Center, McClinton is expected to return to King County Superior Court on Monday. A judge will then decide when McClinton will be released.

Once freed, the Department of Corrections will be able to monitor McClinton for two years. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.